TEXAS LEGISLATURE: Measure would raise charter school cap

Senate bill passes easily in state House

AUSTIN — The state is poised to allow more charter schools and quality controls. The House passed 105-34 a high-priority Senate bill Thursday after debate that included how to prepare for more schools and how to keep out nepotism.

The bill from Sen. Dan Patrick, Senate Bill 2, would raise the cap from 215 open-enrollment charter school contracts to 275 schools. The increase would come incrementally, 10 per year, until 2019.

The bill also would add new quality controls to charter schools. The schools would have different renewal options depending on their academic performance and the way they handle their finances, and the Texas Education Agency commissioner could revoke the charter for poor academic performance and financial standards.

Schools would operate on charter periods of five years when first established and for 10 years after that. An expedited renewal process would allow for an automatic renewal 30 days after a charter school is notified that it has achieved at least the second-highest accountability system rating over the past three years, good financial ratings for the last three years, and low-performing campuses for the last three years that are still open. The commissioner, however, could let the charter expire if it performed poorly enough for several years.

"There are going to be some that close, there just will," said Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock, chairman of the House Public Education Committee, while presenting the bill.

The bill also would establish reporting and transparency requirements.

"Senate Bill 2 is a comprehensive bill to reform the laws governing our public charter schools in the state of Texas," Aycock said. "Charter schools are public schools. ... If charters don't meet the requirements of the contract, it's our obligation to revoke the charter. The flip side of that is if they're doing a good job, there is no reason we shouldn't enter into contracts with them and allow them to grow at a reasonable rate and continue to add charter schools."

About 154,000 students attend charter schools, and more than 101,000 children are on waiting lists, according to a state analysis.

A charter school can have more than one campus, and there are more than 500 open-enrollment campuses, the analysis states.

Supporters of charter school expansion point to the waiting list for schools as a reason to raise the cap.

Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, wanted to postpone enactment of the proposed law for a year, waiting until studies could be done to ensure quality standards.

"It's saying we need to put quality first," Turner said of his amendment.

His amendment didn't pass.

An amendment from James Frank, R-Wichita Falls, grandfathered in employees who were family and exempted them from measures in the bill that would use the same nepotism standards as public schools.

"This will still tighten charter operators' nepotism," Frank said. "If they're working for them now, they can continue working for them."

His amendment passed.

The original Senate version of the bill completely lifted the cap on charters, but later that was changed to allow up to 305 charter school contracts in incremental numbers over a period of years.

Because the versions of the House and Senate differ, such as the 275 versus 305 cap, the bill will need to go to a conference committee.